On Thursday took a walk out to Rafe’s Chasm before the sunset. So pretty out there, as soon as it gets dark, the deer and fox start their nighttime routines.

My View of Life on the Dock
On Thursday took a walk out to Rafe’s Chasm before the sunset. So pretty out there, as soon as it gets dark, the deer and fox start their nighttime routines.

We are More Marketplace and the Magnolia Library.


On December 2nd from 1:00pm to 4:00pm the Elks Lodge 892 and the Cape Ann YMCA are holding a Hoop Shoot, Free Throw Contest for Youths ages 8-13. Participants will have a chance to win 2 Celtics Tickets (winner & guardian) in their age category: Girls: 8-9, 10-11, 12-13 Boys: 8-9, 10-11, 12-13. Winners will also have a chance to advance through to District, State, Regional and National competitions. This is a FREE event and all participants will receive fun prizes. Young people from any city are welcome to participate.
As you know, the Elks is a not for profit charitable organization that promotes patriotism, youth programs, veterans assistance and community assistance programs.
Rabbi Steven Lewis welcomed the community to the November 2, 2018 Kabbalat Shabbat at Temple Ahavat Achim. Organizers had an idea just how big the support and need could be when four hundred RSVP’d. Every seat was taken downstairs and upstairs– where it was standing room only– a full house of interfaith harmony, beautiful music and prayer. It was heartbreaking and hopeful.

Mark your calendars-
Public progamming and community engagement is robust at Temple Ahavat Achim and informed its architecture. For those far away, you can get an idea of just how big the crowd was by seeing the interior. For those lucky enough to worship and/or visit, upcoming announcements mention several collaborative interfaith events (see Facebook), and the date for the annual Lobster Trap Menorah lighting is December 4th, 2018.


*I hope to add a link to the program and the interfaith Facebook page
A reminder that we turn back the clocks tonight and end Daylight Savings Time. Over the years, this ritual has been moved around on our calendars for various reasons. I found an interesting example in the Gloucester Daily Times microfilms available at the Sawyer Free Library.
From the Gloucester Daily Times Sept 26 1938. You will note this article states the reasoning for continuing Daylight Savings Time an additional week because “The railroad, however, is on eastern standard time and so it the post office, a condition made necessary by the new train schedule.”

And then, a few days later, on Sept 30 1938, another tidbit “The governor issued the proclamation after he had received an appeal from the flood executives pointing out that an extra hour of daylight would aid the flood victims in clearing up their property.”

Flood victims? Yes, (and some of you are ahead of me on this) due to the Hurricane of 1938:

It was a chaotic time for all, but hopefully our transition this weekend will be calmer. See you an hour later on the morrow!

For years, residents of Cape Ann have lined up at the Annisquam Village Hall before the doors open for the annual Christmas Fair to purchase the beautiful greens, gifts, and gourmet goodies made by the ladies of the Annisquam Sewing Circle.
The fair is known for its beautiful wreaths, but there will also be decorated boxwood trees and mantle and table centerpieces suitable for smaller spaces.
The abundance and variety of handcrafted items will dazzle the eye—sweaters, socks, hats and mittens; placemats, potholders and monogrammed dish towels; needlepoint tree ornaments created by the members of the Annisquam Sewing CIrcle just for this fair, as well as many more one-of-a-kind items that will not be found anywhere else! Once again, Circle member Grace Murray has knitted one of her unique hats (her 335th!), which will be offered in a silent auction. Only one of these hats becomes available to the public each year.
Beautifully wrapped foods and baked goods grace the gourmet table —from homemade preserves to fancy cakes, gluten-free items and even Food for Fido and your Favorite Feline. The fair also features a glittering display of costume jewelry which for many shoppers is a destination itself. Hostess baskets and grab bags are also popular traditional items at the fair.
A delicious three-course luncheon will be served at 12:30. Tickets are $18 and reservations are recommended (visit Annisquamsewingcircle.org)
Founded in 1837, the Annisquam Sewing Circle is one of the oldest continuous independent societies of women in the United States and is the oldest one on Cape Ann. All proceeds from the Fair are contributed by the Annisquam Sewing Circle to Cape Ann community programs.

The thought of eating a mushy peach or apple totally disgusts me.
Kate and I agree that our Granny Smith apples Need to be dark green with white dots on them and hard as hell, no soft spots.

Some people I’m talking with say they won’t eat their peaches until they are soft and mushy because they’re sweeter. Gross.

I want my peaches tart and hard and to come off in crisp bites-

After a fun time on Main Street went to see sunset and it did not disappoint.


Sometimes you just need a face lift. Not everything needs to be different to be new, not everything has to change to upgrade your kitchen. A few small changes and updates can do the trick. Upgrading cabinetry can feel daunting. There is a lot that goes into a kitchen renovation. But it doesn’t have to be entirely different to be new.

The transformation of this home is both subtle and striking. As far as design goes, not a whole lot was changed. They were able to move the fridge, it was formerly perpendicular to the rest of the lay out along the back wall, next to the door. By stretching out the kitchen a little, we were able to fit the fridge against the wall with the rest of the cabinetry. Moving the fridge against the wall helps keep the layout clean and keeps the kitchen feeling open.
The kitchen…
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We push our clocks back at 2 am Sunday, so it will be dark earlier. But on the positive side, remember the sunsets are earlier and with the cooler air, the colors of sunset seems to be more brilliant.
For more information please see the link below.
Fantastic, thoughtful feature profile about Karen King, by Lydialyle Gibson in the current issue of Harvard Magazine, November-December 2018.
Early Christianity. The bits the Bible Left Out: Karen King. the Harvard University Hollis professor of divinity and a historian of early Christianity, studies texts from Christianity’s first centuries to reinterpret the history of the early church
excerpts:
“…I think a history of Christianity, which is a kind of story, serves us better if it has all the loose ends, the complexities, the multiple voices, the difficulties, the things that don’t add up, the roads not taken—all of that,” she says. “We need complexity for the complexity of our lives.”
“Karen’s book really shifted the discussion,” says Princeton religion scholar Elaine Pagels, Ph.D. ’70, LL.D. ’13, whose 1979 bestseller The Gnostic Gospels dislodged the idea of early Christianity as a unified movement and launched the conversation that What Is Gnosticism? later took up. “Karen’s book showed how those terms”—Gnosticism, heresy, orthodoxy—“were coined, how those concepts were shaped, and how late they came into scholarly discourse,” says Pagels. “It’s like clearing away the brush, so that people could look at these texts with a much more open mind.”
“As an undergraduate at the University of Montana in the early 1970s, King took a religious studies course from John Turner, one of the scholars working to edit and translate the Nag Hammadi texts. In class, she and other students read unpublished drafts of English translations that the wider public wouldn’t see for several years. It was electrifying. King had never imagined that there were early Christian writings beyond the Bible. “Why these texts and not those?” she wondered. And: “Who decided, and why?”
GLOUCESTER, Mass. (November 2, 2018) – The Cape Ann Museum is pleased to present a pirate storytelling program for kids on Saturday, November 10 at 10:00 a.m. It’s all hands on deck for a morning of stories and songs celebrating pirates with the King Serpent Variety Troupe. Treasure map making will be available after the presentation. Free for families with children. To register or for more information, please call (978) 283-0455 x16 or email sarahflanagan@capeannmuseum.org.
The King Serpent Variety Troupe is an outlaw themed performing group based in New England. With music, dance, singing, and storytelling, they have invaded a wide variety of venues and made away with the hearts of audiences young and old. Led by director and lead writer David Breen, the King Serpent has performed on many stages around New England, including Topsfield Fair, Mahi Mahi Cruises & Charters, and Cape Cod Irish Village Hotel.
November 10, 2018 is CAM Kids Second Saturday. The Museum is free for families with school-age children from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on the second Saturday of each month — come in to discover & explore!
Flyer click to enlarge, print and share
Image courtesy of King Serpent Variety Troupe.
Flag your calendars, next week at Cape Ann Museum:

Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America’s Most Notorious Pirates Local author to speak at the Cape Ann Museum
GLOUCESTER, Mass. (November 2, 2018) – The Cape Ann Museum is pleased to welcome Eric Jay Dolin, author of Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America’s Most Notorious Pirates, for a book presentation on Saturday, November 10 at 3:00 p.m. Dolin’s latest book spotlights America’s history of pirates, including some from Cape Ann! This program is free for Museum members or $10 for nonmembers (includes Museum admission).
Books will be available for purchase in the Museum shop. For more information or to make a reservation visit capeannmuseum.org or call 978-283-0455 x10. Set against the backdrop of the Age of Exploration, Black Flags, Blue Waters reveals the dramatic and surprising history of American piracy’s “Golden Age”—spanning the late 1600s through the early 1700s—when lawless pirates plied the coastal waters of North America and the Indian Ocean. In this talk and slide presentation, bestselling author Eric Jay Dolin illustrates how American colonists at first supported these outrageous pirates in an early display of colonial solidarity against the Crown, and then violently opposed them. Dolin depicts the star pirates of this period, among them towering Blackbeard, ill-fated Captain Kidd, and sadistic Edward Low, who delighted in torturing his prey. Upending popular misconceptions and cartoonish stereotypes, Black Flags, Blue Waters provides a wholly original account of the seafaring outlaws whose raids reflect the precarious nature of American colonial life.
Eric Jay Dolin is the author of Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America, which was chosen as one of the best nonfiction books of 2007 by the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, and Providence Journal, and also won the 2007 John Lyman Award for U.S. Maritime History; and Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America, which was chosen by the Seattle Times as one of the best nonfiction books of 2010, and also won the James P. Hanlan Book Award, given by the New England Historical Association. He is also the author of When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail, which was chosen by Kirkus Reviews as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of 2012; and Brilliant Beacons: A History of the American Lighthouse, which was chosen by Captain and Classic Boat as one of the best nautical books of 2016. A graduate of Brown, Yale, and MIT, where he received his PhD in environmental policy, Dolin lives in Marblehead, Massachusetts, with his family. For more information on his background, books, and awards, please visit his website, ericjaydolin.com. You can also follow Dolin’s posts on Facebook on his professional page, @ericjaydolin.

About the Cape Ann Museum The Cape Ann Museum has been in existence since the 1870s, working to preserve and celebrate the history and culture of the area and to keep it relevant to today’s audiences. Spanning 44,000 square feet, the Museum is one of the major cultural institutions on Boston’s North Shore welcoming more than 25,000 local, national and international visitors each year to its exhibitions and programs. In addition to fine art, the Museum’s collections include decorative art, textiles, artifacts from the maritime and granite industries, two historic homes and a sculpture park in the heart of downtown Gloucester. Visit capeannmuseum.org for details. The Museum is located at 27 Pleasant Street in Gloucester. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Sundays from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Admission is $12.00 adults, $10.00 Cape Ann residents, seniors and students. Youth (under 18) and Museum members are free. For more information please call: (978)283-0455 x10. Additional information can be found online at www.capeannmuseum.org